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Multiple IEs on one machine

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With the recent release of a preview of IE7 beta 2, there's been another slew of demands for "standalone IE", and much posturing on both sides about whether Microsoft can/should provide this.

I said to Molly Holzschlag of the Web Standards Project back in November 2005 that the "...best way of testing IE with multiple installs is using Virtual PC."  That is still the case.  I discussed a little bit in that interview how .local works, and why it is an unsupported scenario.  I also said we've known about the .local trick for a long time - even use it occasionally internally, but that we know exactly what the effects are.  We are not to my knowledge disabling this in any way in IE7, but that I can't guarantee it will work in the future either, and it may not have appropriate behavior anyway (because you're running "most" of IE6, or "most" of IE7). 

In short, I'm not telling you the ONLY way of testing multiple IEs on one machine is VPC.  It's the BEST way.  We are not going to officially support using .local to run multiple IEs on one machine, because it is potentially unstable.  IE is a collection of DLLs that are designed to work as parts of the operating system, and if you have a mismatched set it may cause problems.  As far as I personally am concerned, you can use this to test HTML rendering and switching out MSHTML.DLL, and "most" of the time it will work - but it's not the same as having a full set of new IE system DLLs installed.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 04, 2006
    Hi Chris
    Could you point me in the right direction to find out more about this .local setup please.

    I have recently installed IE7 beta, great but now i can't test my websites in IE 6 and, being honest, I'm not about to spend loads of cash on Virtual PC just to run IE 6

    So far IE 7 seems to render exactly as FF 1.5 does so maybe it's off with 7 and back on with 6


    Cheers

    webecho

  • Anonymous
    February 06, 2006
    You can find more information about it at a number of places - http://labs.insert-title.com/labs/Multiple-IEs-in-Windows_article795.aspx is a good place to start.

  • Anonymous
    March 03, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 27, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 17, 2006
    No doubt it is the best way to test multiple IEs... but seriously, it's not a cheap bit of software (especially in a market of free browsers). Although it's still cheaper than buying a Mac Mini just to test Mac browsers ;)

    Is there any chance MS would ever release a free, packaged install of VPC+IE? As in, a package which will not run any other app - so MS wouldn't be giving away VPC - but it will load up different IEs?

  • Anonymous
    June 29, 2006
    This morning we released IE7 Beta 3 for Windows XP. This version includes improvements in reliability,...

  • Anonymous
    June 29, 2006
    Howdy.

    I have IE6 & IE7 beta2 running side by side on my testing PC.

    I'm a Mac person, so I also have Safari, WebKit Nightly, OmniWeb, Opera 9, Shiira, etc...

    I have a PowerPC Mac, so I use Remote Desktop to connect to a barebones PC. Eventually i'll get an Intel mac and Parallels Desktop so I can use a single machine.

    http://subtlegradient.com/articles/2006/05/10/use-ie6-ie7-firefox-safari-on-the-same-machine-simultaneously

    I'm going to try and install BETA3 now.

  • Anonymous
    June 29, 2006
    I second the recommendation of Ben Buchanan above. Make a VPC+IE package that allows for testing multiple IEs. It would be great if all users would upgrade en masse when new browsers are available, but it just ain't gonna happen. As a developer I really need a way to run IE6 and IE7 at the same time. VPC sounds like a good deal, but is on the spendy side just to be able to test a browser.

  • Anonymous
    July 01, 2006
    I can't believe that you seriously expect developers to shell out $$$ for Virtual PC (which has it's own problems) simply to test their web sites in different versions of browsers -- one of them a BETA!!  It is just a web browser and should be separated from the OS.  It is ridiculous that IE is so tied to Windows that you can't uninstall it or have different versions running side-by-side.

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    July 19, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    October 05, 2006
    On the plus side, MS Virtual PC is now free. Test away!

  • Anonymous
    October 19, 2006
    VPC is free, but you have to buy a new copy of Windows if you bought from an OEM like HP, since their copy of windows only installs on its hardware (which it can not detect on VPC). So you still have to spend $300 to use IE6.

  • Anonymous
    November 11, 2006
    Try: http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 30, 2006
    Many of you have asked how to run IE6 and IE7 in a side by side environment. As Chris Wilson blogged

  • Anonymous
    November 30, 2006
    PingBack from http://www.solo-technology.com/blog/2006/11/30/a-twist-on-running-ie6-and-ie7-on-a-single-machine/

  • Anonymous
    November 30, 2006
    Since downloading IE7 update I keep getting a message after my games start to freeze up that I am out of memory and it will either freeze or close all open windows and I must reboot. I was having no problems with previous version. How do I get my old version back?

  • Anonymous
    December 01, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 01, 2006
    Brian is writing on his blog that Microsoft offers a free Windows XP including Internet Explorer 6 as

  • Anonymous
    December 02, 2006
    PingBack from http://www.roks.xmgfree.com/blog/2006/12/02/how-to-run-ie6-and-ie7-on-a-single-machine/

  • Anonymous
    December 03, 2006
    I am right in assuming that I can's install IE7 on the Virtual PC?  I really need IE6 to be on my main machine and IE7 on the VPC. However, when upgrading to IE7 on the VPC, it complains that it is not a genuine version of Windows. Am I stuck using IE7 on the main machine and IE6 on the VPC?

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    December 04, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    December 06, 2006
    PingBack from http://www.evansthompson.com/2006/12/03/virtualpc-image-for-running-ie6-with-ie7-simultaneously/

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    December 13, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    December 23, 2006
    I seriously don't believe this! The only reason these people want two versions of IE on their computer is so they can compensate for the mistakes of one [or both] of them! Web developers and designers everywhere are sick of IE and it's non-compliance, but need to design around it because it seems to be the most widely used browser. So you want us to install another microsoft product on our computer so we can iron out the faults in the first one?? Lunacy!

  • Anonymous
    December 28, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 05, 2007
    PingBack from http://www.evansthompson.com/?p=78

  • Anonymous
    February 14, 2007
    http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/7/2/b72085ae-0f04-4c6f-9182-bf1ee90f5273/IE6AC_VPC.EXE

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    February 22, 2007
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    February 24, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    March 11, 2007
    Многие спрашивают, как обеспечить работу обозревателей IE6 и IE7 в одной системе. Как уже писал Крис...

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    April 10, 2007
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    April 13, 2007
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    May 14, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    June 08, 2007
    IEBlog : IE6 and IE7 Running on a Single Machine Many of you have asked how to run IE6 and IE7 in a side by side environment. As Chris Wilson blogged about early this year, it&#8217;s unfortunately not so easy...

  • Anonymous
    July 18, 2007
    i will try it, bau i have problems :(

  • Anonymous
    September 18, 2007
    Am I stuck using IE7 on the main machine and IE6 on the VPC?

  • Anonymous
    January 10, 2008
    IEBlog : IE6 and IE7 Running on a Single Machine Many of you have asked how to run IE6 and IE7 in a side by side environment.

  • Anonymous
    January 26, 2008
    http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE No problem.  This is the solution for testers.

  • Anonymous
    July 09, 2008
    PingBack from http://www.zachschneider.com/?p=234

  • Anonymous
    September 02, 2008
    Hi Chris: Can you tell me if it is possible to run both Safari or Firefox on the same machine as IE 6? Any assistance you could provide would be much appreciated. Cheers, Lisa Kilpatrick Datawatch lisa_kilpatrick@datawatch.com

  • Anonymous
    September 04, 2008
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  • Anonymous
    April 25, 2009
    IEBlog : IE6 and IE7 Running on a Single Machine Many of you have asked how to run IE6 and IE7 in a side by side environment.

  • Anonymous
    April 25, 2009
    Am I stuck using IE7 on the main machine and IE6 on the VPC?

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    June 13, 2009
    Am I stuck using IE7 on the main machine and IE6 on the VPC?

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  • Anonymous
    July 19, 2009
    Am I stuck using IE7 on the main machine and IE6 on the VPC?

  • Anonymous
    July 23, 2009
    IEBlog : IE6 and IE7 Running on a Single Machine Many of you have asked how to run IE6 and IE7 in a side by side environment.

  • Anonymous
    July 23, 2009
    Am I stuck using IE7 on the main machine and IE6 on the VPC?

  • Anonymous
    August 27, 2009
    Thanks for that. Genel forum,metin2 kaybolan yillar...

  • Anonymous
    September 08, 2009
    Am I stuck using IE7 on the main machine and IE6 on the VPC?

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2009
    Ben sağ ben Virtual PC IE7 yükleyebilirsiniz's varsayımıyla mı? Gerçekten benim ana makine ve IE7 Doğum VPC olmak için IE6 gerekir. Ancak, IE7 için VPC üzerinde yükseltmek, bunun Windows'un orijinal bir sürüm değilse şikayet ediyor. Ben ana makine ve IE6 VPC üzerindeki IE7 kullanarak takılıp muyum?

  • Anonymous
    November 06, 2009
    thanks for this great article!

  • Anonymous
    November 14, 2009
    Am I stuck using IE7 on the main machine and IE6 on the VPC?